Saturday, February 28, 2015

Click here for link to the City of Lake Worth's website where you will see something like this on the Bids and Proposals page:

It is my understanding that Hudson Holdings, the owner of the Gulfstream Hotel submitted a proposal through this process. So did others. They had one (1) meeting on November 4, 2014 and the sign in sheet is here:

Note that a representative from the Office of Inspector General was in attendance.

This is the public notice for that meeting:

Beyond this nothing has gone forward.Click here for the packet which solicits input on how to make the beach a financially sustainable operation. Note too that there is a whole "cone of silence" provision that makes it so no one can talk about the individual proposals until a recommendation is made by the selection committee, which is made up of staff; Commissioner Amoroso is the liaison to the committee. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of what is proposed and what the committee finally recommends.

[Now that a certain Lake Worth Commissioner has talked about one of the proposals, if true, that might have tainted the whole process and there could be legal/ethical fallout from it.]

Here is where Commissioner Amoroso was appointed the liaison to the commission related to the process, from the October 7, 2014 meeting. The vote was unanimous.

Here are Commissioner McVoy's thoughts on the matter expressed at the following commission meeting on October 21, 2014.

Note that Commissioner Szerdi cannot act (or vote) on anything related to Hudson Holdings and their property in Lake Worth, since he works for them under contract in Delray Beach related to the historic Sundy House. He is also prohibited from work on any project of theirs in the City of Lake Worth, per this advisory opinion letter sought from the Commission on Ethics by the city:

The Committee will eventually make a recommendation back to the City Commission and be fully vetted by the public at that time. No decision has been made yet.

As Commissioner McVoy states at the 1:28 minute mark of the first video above, this is the "idea stage" of solutions to fix problems at the beach created by a previous commission. And note, this "idea stage" is confidential at this time.

"If you go to City Hall and request public records about this project [The Gulfstream Hotel], you might be surprised about what you hear. Due to a city resolution, this information is not public. The city believes that the plans for this project are proprietary. I believe they should be public. Residents should have knowledge about projects that affect them directly. Last week at the Parrot Cove forum, my opponent stated that the Gulfstream is going to build a parking garage on South Lakeside Drive. How does my opponent have that information when you, the residents are not privy to it?"—Ryan Maier, Bryant Park Forum, 2/23/15

...under written request from a private
corporation, partnership, or person, records of an economic development
agency which
would contain or would provide information concerning plans,
intentions, or interests of such private corporation, partnership, or
person to locate, relocate, or expand any of its business activities in
the state are confidential and exempt from s.119.07 (1),
Florida Statutes, and s. 24 (a) Art. I of the Florida Constitution.

[This information was provided by the City of Lake Worth's Economic Development Director.]

Furthermore, the City Commission authorized Confidentiality for Economic Development Projects under Resolution 28-2012. You may find Resolution 28-2012 on the City's website, here.

Here is the Resolution (below), passed by the City Commission in July 2012.

The vote was unanimous with the Mayor being absent. Notice that both Commissioners Mulvehill and McVoy were on the Commission at the time and voted affirmatively.

Here is the application that a private entity can submit to qualify for the exemption from the Sunshine Law.

While the owners of the Gulfstream Hotel have filed this paperwork, they have still met with many neighborhood groups throughout 2014. Here is when they took place and with which Lake Worth neighborhood association:

At each of these meetings, the owners of the property discussed plans for the renovation of the historic hotel along with the need to provide additional parking in the area in the form of a parking garage. They have met, and continue to meet with representatives in the area, regarding the number of spaces, ownership arrangements for those spaces and the needs and requirements related to the hotel. These discussions were necessary before any formal application was filed with the city.

This is William Waters' description of the process to date and what they have submitted to the city:

Hudson [Holdings] has applied for and received approval for exterior demolition of the
pool and pool pavilion and interior exploratory demolition. Applications for the
two structures on the west are pending awaiting submission of required
documentation and presentation of a formal conceptual plan. Once all of
the information is received a CoA will be brought forward to the HRPB [Historic Resource Preservation Board].

The approval mentioned was not wide enough in scope to go before any board and it was approved by staff. Demolition of the pool got rid of an attractive nuisance—it was dangerous and unsecured in its previous condition.

Now, as it relates to Commissioner John Szerdi's knowledge of whether or not a parking garage is planned—he has attended some of those neighborhood meetings where presentations were made. Commissioner Szerdi and the city acted proactively and asked for a Commission on Ethics opinion regarding his doing paid work for the owners of the property and the implications that has on his actions as a Commissioner in Lake Worth related to the Gulfstream Hotel property. This is the opinion letter RQO14-035.

Commissioner John Szerdi has adhered to this opinion and it will guide his actions in the future. This is not an "ethics violation." This is guidance, requested by the city, on how a seated Commissioner should conduct himself in the future.

Now, listen to the whole statement by candidate Ryan Maier at last Monday's (2/23) Bryant Park candidate forum about transparency:

The following morning, I contacted the Office of Inspector General of Palm Beach County. I asked for any and all correspondence relating to Lake Worth City Commissioner John Szerdi. Two days later, this is what I received:

Letter to Lynn Anderson, dated 2/19/15 from the Office of Inspector General.

Letter to Kathleen McGiveron dated 2/19/15 from the Office of Inspector General.

The subject of the complaint is for City Manager, the entire City Commission, sans Commissioner McVoy.

The complaint is about the cancellation of meetings in March due to the Commission's trip to Tallahassee this week and the 'supposed' Sunshine Law violations. Per the Inspector General letters to both Ms. Anderson and Mrs. McGiveron, "no information was presented that would indicate a violation of law, policy or rule. Therefore, this correspondence is closed."

There is no "ethics violation" from the Inspector General's office regarding Commissioner Szerdi. There is also no ethics violation from the Commission on Ethics. All there is is an advisory opinion—not a violation.Political advertisement paid for and approved by John Szerdi, non-partisan for City Commissioner

From The Rickie Report is this about a workshop coming up on Lake Ave in the little City of Lake Worth:

Amelia Costa will be presenting an informative and helpful workshop at Artisans on the Ave in Lake Worth, “How To Sell Your Art on the Internet”. Amelia has had much success marketing her own jewelry designs and ceramic pieces as well as potter, John McCoy’s, work via internet sales. The Rickie Report shares the details and some views of Amelia’s and John’s artistry. Pre-Registration is necessary!

The Rickie Report is a wonderful resource for the goings-on in the art scene here in Lake Worth. Check it out now and then.

From Jennifer Sorentrue at the Palm Beach Post we have a very interesting article about tourism in Palm Beach County (PBC). Some of the numbers reported is information I never knew before. When you read the article you can see how our little City of Lake Worth can take advantage of an obvious need in PBC—vis-à-vis hotel rooms.

Many people visiting PBC are going to like what they see. Don't forget the last estimate as reported on this blog: 800 people per day are moving to Florida to live—permanently or seasonally. For some perspective, that's the City of Lake Worth population every 43 days.

From the article by Jennifer Sorentrue:

The hotel occupancy rate in Palm Beach County reached 81.9 percent in January [emphasis added], and tourism leaders say that number is expected to climb higher this month as frigid weather continues to cripple much of the country. In January, there were roughly 491,000 nightly bookings available at rooms in the county’s 165 hotels and motels, according to the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council. Roughly 402,000 of those nightly bookings were sold to out-of-town travelers and other guests, the council said. Industry leaders say February is also expected to be a banner month. Hotel occupancy soared to 97 percent on Valentine’s Day and many area hotels have little room for guests weary of the winter weather up north.

[and...]

Donald Dufresne, a member of the county’s Tourist Development Council, said new hotel rooms are needed to help meet the growing demand. There are 15,849 hotel rooms in Palm Beach County. Hundreds of new rooms are expected to be added to that inventory over the next 18 months with the opening of several new hotels. “Sometimes it is not enough inventory to accommodate the demand,” Dufresne said. “The good news is that we have a lot of inventory being constructed right now."

Jennifer Chaparro has a blog called Amazing Street Painting. When you visit her blog leave her a nice comment if you can. Here is a picture of her and her art at this years Festival:

Jennifer Chaparro and Patrick Pierson with their amazing street art.

She wrote this in her blog:

Thanks again to Maryanne Webber and the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival for putting this wonderful show on each year. It is the biggest in the US, maybe the world with 600 artists participating and 250 pieces of art being created over the weekend. South Florida is lucky to have this amazing event.

And we were privileged to have her. Hope to see you and Patrick Pierson next year!

He picked up on the ridiculous story about the Common Ground (no 's') Church story here in the little City of Lake Worth. Here is an excerpt:

Yesterday, February 22, 2015, members of the Libertarian Party of Palm Beach County showed up to see how they could help with a local church's fight with the City of Lake Worth over licensing. The Common Ground church borrows space from the Common Grounds coffee house at 12 S J St in Lake Worth for a few hours a week.

At the top of the blog post was this picture taken from the Channel 5/WPTV website:

Any reasonable person would conclude that this story was so important that the best TV news station in Palm Beach County was on this story, correct? WRONG!

The story by WPTV on 7/16/2013 was a positive story on how Lake Worth was making a strong effort to improve Code Enforcement in the City. Lake Worth Mayor Pam Triolo was interviewed in the story by Channel 5's Ryan Calhoun. Since this story by Channel 5 many improvements have been made to Code Enforcement, including the demolition of many dilapidated/unsafe structures.

This was Ryan Maier's answer to the first question asked last Monday night at the Bryant Park Candidate Forum (2/23). The question was this: "How would you better utilize Bryant Park for the benefit of the city?"

Contrary to Mr. Maier's assertions, there is a kayak concession that works out of Bryant Park and the surrounding area. Kayak Lake Worth operates on an appointment basis and delivers kayaks at the boat ramp for people who want to kayak in the Lake Worth Lagoon. Usually they drop them off in the public boat ramp that is there, or other places based upon weather. There is no building; it is more of an "on-demand" business providing a service. They have made presentations at City Commission meetings about their operation—so the city is aware of their operation. Apparently Mr. Maier is not.

His other ideas related to the establishment of concessions in Bryant Park gave some area neighbors coronary stress at Monday night's Bryant Park Neighborhood Association candidate forum. He thinks the park should be a moneymaker for the city, which wouldn't keep our parks non-commercialized. It also runs counter to what would be allowed in the Public Recreation and Open Space (PROS) zoning for Bryant Park. Here is what the code allows:

The following quote by Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein was the very last paragraph of a story by Margaret Menge totaling 34 paragraphs and a Case Narrative of 18 paragraphs. A total of 52 paragraphs. Then add to that three color pictures (2 of which were very large) and THEN an editorial on the same subject:

"So, all they have to do is go through the conditional land use process to make sure the impacts have been assessed...if they're a small church, it shouldn't be a big deal."--Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein, 2/20/15

The Common Ground (no 's') Church 'story' is a non-story. Period. End of story.

Now Channel 12 is hot on the heels of this non-story. Kathleen Walter has this report called, "War On Religion? Lake Worth Orders Churches To Have License To Pray":

Instead Kathleen Walter reported this story on Lake Worth[NOTE: CH12 DELETED THE LINK TO KATHLEEN WALTERS STORY ON 12/13/2014], the night before the Lake Worth Holiday Parade. We understand that she was trolling for a negative point-of-view during the evening. As part of Kathleen Walter's story she included the tree lighting ceremony from Friday night as a backdrop and here is the screen grab:

Is Channel 12 up to their old tricks again? Only 12 days before a Municipal Election here in the City of Lake Worth?

And also consider this, folks. Channel 12/WPEC was the only local news outlet that didn't report anything on our recent Lake Worth Street Painting Festival. Channel 5/WPTV did. You can watch that excellent report here.

The 39th Red Cross Show House serves up a sweet confection this year, with its choice of Lake Worth’s historic La Florentia, also known as the Birthday Cake Castle. With rooms galore, and plenty of nooks and crannies, the house is a verifiable 7,000-square-foot feast, which will be open to visitors March 5 through April 4, with a special preview party on March 4. Recently bought by Scott Levine, the house was built by Sherman Childs in 1925, receiving its nickname when past owner Upton Close gave the house to his wife, Margaret Fretter Nye, as a birthday present in 1954. Cakey qualities include candle-ish pillars, icing-like swirls of thick plaster, and even a birthday cake stained glass window.

IF YOU GO:

The Red Cross Show House’s Birthday Cake Castle is at 1 Fifth Ave S., Lake Worth. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets to the preview party are $200 per person. General admission is $35 per person at the door. In addition to tours of the home, guests may also shop at an on-site boutique. For information, call 650-9133.

Representatives made presentations at these meetings and mentioned the scope of the redevelopment program, which included a parking garage. An informal presentation was given to the Historic Resource Preservation Board and its December 10, 2014 meeting. The proposed parking garage was also mentioned then. Nothing about the plans have been submitted officially to the city to date.

Click title for link to summary of the Mayor Pam Triolo's State of the City speech. Again, it was very upbeat, while pointing out areas the city still needs to improve. The article is by Eliot Kleinberg.

For decades, Triolo said, Lake Worth’s neighbors and visitors have said, “if only Lake Worth could realize its full potential.”The city is making that happen, she said, “without sacrificing the charm and beauty that inherently exists here.” [emphasis added] From 2008 to 2013, the city issued no new permits for private commercial investment or offices, with the exception of a Publix store and the city’s casino complex and water plant. Last year, the city issued 425 commercial building permits that generated $250,097.

[The article concludes with this...]

[Mayor Pam] Triolo said the city’s poverty rate still hovers at 30 percent and unemployment at 13 percent “but this will change as new businesses open, bringing in new opportunities that will bring jobs.” She also said crime rates are down, electric rates are lower, and abandoned properties and eyesore properties are being torn down and replaced by new homes.And, she said, drawing cheers, the city last year saw almost $100 million in new investment “that will add to our tax rolls, with millions more on the way. That’s what I call potential.”

If you haven't had a chance to see the video, here is a short 5-minute segment at the end of Mayor Pam Triolo's speech. And, once again, thank you for visiting my blog.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
--Buddha

In the Lake Worth Herald this week (Thursday, 2/26) is a statement from the Bryant Park Neighborhood Association correcting an unfair and untrue assertion from candidate Ryan Maier at their Candidate Forum on Monday, 2/23:

Thank you for attending the Bryant Park Neighborhood Association's (BPNA) Candidate Forum. During last night's candidate forum BPNA desired to keep a neutral position. During the forum BPNA chose not to correct, defend or add additional information to the candidates' responses.Unfortunately one candidate, Ryan Maier, chose to claim Commissioner John Szerdi knows about the parking garage that the Gulfstream Hotel will propose to construct. Ryan claims this is information that Comm. Szerdi knows about and is withholding from the general public. This information was discussed, publicly, at the Lake Worth Historic Resources Preservation Board as a courtesy conceptual review last December [2014]. A very preliminary plan was submitted for discussion. The Gulfstream Hotel's proposal to construct a parking garage, amongst other items, was discussed as part of their development.Reference: December 10th, 2014 on the agenda as item #5.G.4 "Conceptual Review of a request for demolition of two structures at 14 S Lakeside Dr."

Marco Island, the jewel of Florida’s 10,000 islands, is the best of its kind in the U.S., according to Trip Advisor readers. The website is out with its 2015 travelers’ choice list of 10 Best U.S. Islands. At the tip of the state’s southwest coast, this bridge-linked island runs up against the Everglades and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.Two other Florida islands made Trip Advisors 2015 list. All of them are accessible by bridges.

Of course, the Lake Worth Cribune is Always FREE. Read about Dustin Zacks' cat, who has a crush on Marshall Pass, a rooster with PTSD, and heaps, loads, scads, mucho, a lot more! And don't forget the Reader Poll: the Truth, necessary or not? You decide.

West Palm Beach will work with struggling schools in the city, starting with the worst, Northmore Elementary, the city said Wednesday. The effort is the fallback after the city last year abandoned, at least for now, its attempts to create a city-run charter school. The city said it will work with the Palm Beach County School Board and the private sector in a phased program to improve reading levels of students at Northmore, at 4111 North Terrace Dr., in the city’s north end. That’s not far from the city-owned lot near 28th Street and Broadway where the city had planned Palm Beach County’s first municipally run charter school. West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio repeated Wednesday of the charter school, “right now, it’s a dead issue.”

On the subject of charter schools, probably the silliest idea for a charter school was here in the City of Lake Worth. A charter school was proposed to teach ancient Greek and Latin to young children—fortunately, reason prevailed in that instance.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Watch Lake Worth District 2 Commissioner, Incumbent, Christopher McVoy very closely during this break at a City Commission meeting on 8/19/14. During breaks at Lake Worth City Commission meetings the audio is turned off; however, the video keeps on taping the action.

Why was Commissioner McVoy going through another commissioners documents without permission?

After watching this would you vote for this man? Leave him alone in your office? Trust him with your city's future? Commissioner McVoy's behavior here is inexcusable.

Just imagine the howl and cry if another Lake Worth Commissioner went through Commissioner McVoy's personal papers without HIS PERMISSION? A double standard?

Other than just volunteer participation required at this event to help with serving the food; the school invites any book donations (child safe) which will be placed in the book box at this event. Any book donations will be greatly appreciated by the school and the children, and will be of tremendous help at the Literacy event. If you have any books that you would like to donate, please can you deliver them to the City Manager’s office no later than Friday, March 6, 2015 at 3:00 p.m.

Any casual reader of my blog (and thank you everyone for visiting) knows I am a strong advocate for my little City of Lake Worth and most recently, our highly successful Street Painting Festival. The Director of the Festival this year was Maryanne Webber and the Producer was Nadine Burns. Thank you everyone who attended and volunteered this year.

The Street Painting Festival is a free event to the public. As such, there are no metrics to gauge how many people are going to show up. From second-hand sources know on both days people were very worried that attendance would be low due to the slow influx of visitors about noon. That all changed and very quickly. Note these three tweets I sent about the Festival, especially the third one where I write, "No comment necessary".

When anyone clicked the link to that third tweet you were directed to my blog where I posted some crowd pics from the Festival on Sunday (2/22) at 2:30 in the afternoon:

Then my tweet got molested!

The above individual molested my tweet. My tweet was a good tweet. Until it got molested. Festivals are for people. People like Festivals. Festivals make people happy and happy people like being around other happy people.

Was it really necessary to molest my tweet? It was a well-meaning tweet, a tweet full of promise and joy. Until my tweet was molested.

Was the Festival "Wayyyy too crowded"? No, of course not. A lot of happy people just happened to show up and that is Wayyyy too cool!

The Honda Classic is going on in Palm Beach Gardens this week. A massive event that puts Palm Beach County on the map each year.

Our local Lake Worth band of Anarchists will be going to Palm Beach Gardens for an entirely different reason. Everglades EarthFirst! (EEF) is having a protest/march! And I'm sure the Palm Beach Gardens PD is going to be pleased. As if they don't have enough to do.

[Read here about the EEF protest in November 2014; things didn't go quite as planned that day.]

Here are the details if you wish to attend the protest/march. However, there's a problem. They give directions to two entirely different locations for the attendees:

Above is the first location given and below is the second location. What's a protestor to do?

I'm sure they'll get everything straightened out by Friday. Also, EEF is getting help from Lush Cosmetics at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens. Lush had an event for EEF to help raise funds to continue the struggle!

This was THE surprise answer of the campaign season in the City of Lake Worth. The people at the South Palm Park Neighborhood Association (on 2/16/15) thought so too. Check out the murmuring of the crowd at the end of his response.

Is he aware, apparently not, that Palm Beach State College's main campus is at the southeast corner of Lake Worth Road and Congress—just west of the city of Lake Worth proper? It's also served by City of Lake Worth electricity. I went to a "small college" in Michigan that had 1,200 students. It also had a campus of 125 acres. Where exactly would this "small college" he talks about go in our little City of Lake Worth?

What he might have said, which would have made sense to say (but he didn't), is try ways to increase transit between the downtown area of Lake Worth and the already existing Palm Beach State College. Then you might see more "younger people" wandering our downtown. Using our small housing as student housing was another unlikely idea.

Was he referring to the Golf Course as a potential location? Hmmmm. This was a real strange answer.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

From the Tom McGow archives. One of Tom McGow's classic photoshops of former Lake Worth commissioner JoAnn Golden. Ssshhhhhhh! In 2009 the mantra of JoAnn Golden in Lake Worth was, "there will be no merriment" in the downtown.

Was it any wonder our downtown stagnated and no one wanted to come here?